Comments on: Behind the scientific gobbledygook method

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos may not be confused with Einstein, but he deserves a break after a particularly cruel intellectual ordeal.

[ghostofitpast]

Be that as it may ...

There is still something to be said for expressing yourself in a language that approaches the comprehension of the man in the street. Even Einstein saw the value in writing a book about relativity for the general public. There is a danger of getting so wrapped up in a highly specialized jargon and the narrow community that speaks only that jargon. The danger is of becoming a "techno-moron," thoroughly informed about one small corner of the world and oblivious to all else.

[billmosby]

We can do both!

If you're presenting technical work to an audience in which you
expect to find members who understand the jargon, jargon saves
time. That's how it arises in the first place. In other venues,
converting to English or whatever makes sense. I remember talking
to a couple of people about plasma physics one time. They had
nursing backgrounds and were quite confused at first! Once I
explained that I didn't mean blood plasma, things cleared up a tiny
bit.

[dmm]

fallacy

It is a common idea that scientists and engineers often become "techno-morons." I hate to break it to you, but this is a delusion. Super-brainiacs often spend most of their time hanging out with others of their kind for the same reason that most adults prefer to hang out with other adults rather than with children: it is exhausting to continually reach down to someone so far beneath you intellectually. You have to keep explaining stuff, and not use big words, and gloss over the complications that make life interesting. In the end you wind up playing dollies.

Some people have a wonderful talent at connecting with (and raising up) people at a lower intellectual level. Whether they are "ordinary" intellects working with children, or geniuses working with "ordinary" adults, we call them teachers. They change society and make our knowledge-based economy possible. We reward their special gift by paying them crappy salaries and quoting encouraging sayings such as "those who can't, teach."

[rapier1]

Language

I agree but its very important to remember that this is
conference by physicists for physicists. The specialized language
is important because its a concise and precise way of exchange
information. When I talk to fellow researchers I'll say "SACK
behaviour indicates OOPs possibly caused by queue issues at the
Juniper M160 rather than a fish route" because they know what
that means. If I'm talking to my mom I'd jut say 'Oh there is a
machine between here and yahoo mucking things up'.

[Soliton]

Well said

While the write-up was funny and experience excruciating indeed from the "layman's" point of you, thats how things are. As a researcher in solid-state electronics, I sometimes get to review papers (peer-review) that has quite a bit of technical jargon alien to me even (the same thing can be referred with different jargon sometimes) -- so then I have to educate myself before passing judgement on the quality of the paper. The truth is, use of jargon can be extremely concise and coherent means of passing on information to your peers, however, that same can also be incomprehensible to the man on the street, an erudite tech reporter, or even someone in a different area of research. What saves the day, however, is the fact that if the end result of the work is general enough for the "wider audience" it will inevitably be disseminated by the researchers themselves for the "wider audience". Unless, of course, its Quantum Mechanics ;)

[gal1264]

Oops

I think you mixed up that programming article's DLL with the low Jitter PLL you saw at the conference. That and you missed the presentation of silicon photonics. Otherwise spot on :) We're entering the era where everything will be made of silicon!

[SmpCtryPhys]

Scientific?

The author would be better served if he would learn the difference between scientific and technical. All of the gobbledygook he quotes is technical rather than scientific. A good starting place to learn this is James Burke's books which also explain how natural this confusion is. Nonetheless, if one is reporting on matters technical and/or scientific, one must uphold a higher standard than sports or celebrity gushing.

[nextcube]

The other thing is...

In the end, it's research at the silicon physics level that makes all of the higher-level stuff possible. Moore's Law is powered not by magazine ads portraying twenty-armed tennis players, but by incremental improvements, day in and day out, by researchers like these. Give them a break if they speak a language unfamiliar to you!

[NoVista]

the real fallacy is:

reach down to someone so far beneath you intellectually

Nothing wrong with jargon -- as we say in the land of oz, horses for courses.

Don't fool yourself that being a super-brainiac in one field makes you master of the universe. If the shoe's on the other foot and you're listening to a specialist on Austrian economic theory, you might have second thoughts about intellect ...